One approach to solar electric power generation is to use one or more heliostats to heat and focus reflected solar radiation onto a container of high-specific-heat material. A heliostat is basically a flat plate with a highly reflective surface to efficiently reflect most of the solar radiation incident upon it onto the target container (the “receiver”). To accomplish this, the heliostat must be capable of tracking the sun across the sky and pointing the reflective surface in the appropriate direction to maintain the sun's reflected radiation on the container. In its most basic form, the heliostat is a simple planar support structure, coated with a highly-reflective optical material and mounted on a tracking/pointing pedestal. The desirable qualities of a state-of-the-art heliostat are lightweight, low-cost, structurally rigid, environmentally durable, with a highly reflective surface. In improved designs, a very slight curvature in the heliostat mirror is introduced to enhance the focusing quality.